A Chance At Life
by Annabeth500
Summary: Set ten years after the Blood of Olympus, Annabeth and Percy get an emergency call from Camp, and leave on a quest to save one of their closest friends. Rick Riordan owns the Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus characters. Thanks to magicatherwren for helping me make this story the best it could be.
1. Chapter 1

I opened my eyes and rolled over. A shock of jet black hair was on the bed next to me. I smiled and fell onto my back. My alarm buzzed. 7:30. I had to get to work! The mop of black hair groaned and sat up.

It was June, ten years after the great war against Gaea and the giants. Percy and I had got married when we were nineteen, moved in together and attended the same college, but we'd studied different subjects. I, archaeology, and Percy, marine biology. Piper and Jason had gone to college, and got married three years ago. Frank and Hazel were at Camp Jupiter, both finishing their last year in the university there. _They_ got married earlier this year. No one had heard from Leo over these last ten years...

After work that day, I picked up Percy and we went home. I checked my phone, and there was a voice message from Piper.

"Annabeth? You and Percy need to get to Camp as soon as you get this message. Something big's happened," she said, sounding worried.

"Percy, we have to get to Camp. Piper said something big has happened." I walked over to Percy, who was sitting on the couch. He looked up and frowned. Then, he grabbed his car keys, and we hurried downstairs.

When we got to Camp, Jason and Piper were there to greet us. There was another figure sitting on the bench behind them. The person's face was obscured by shadows.

"Hey Annabeth, Percy. Look who just arrived," Jason said quietly. The figure sitting on the bench moved his head. A mass of curls bounced at every angle off his head. I shook my head.

"No. It can't be. It is!" I cried. The boy moved his head so it was in the light.

"Hello Annabeth. Hi Percy. So nice to finally see you both again," said Leo Valdez, son of Hephaestus.


	2. Chapter 2

I stood there, shell shocked.

"Leo? How can... but- you're dead. The last ten years... where have you been?" I stammered, trying to get a hold of the most important thing: Leo was back.

He laughed weakly, his curls feebly shaking, "I was always alive, Annabeth. The last ten years I've been getting married, having kids (but that only happened a few hours ago) and working at a motor repair shop." I looked closely at him. His creased face was deathly white and a gold band wrapped around one of his shaking fingers. He wore his usual overalls, along with his magic tool belt. He looked dangerously thin and ill. Percy and I gave him each a hug, and I stepped back.

"Alright, spill, Leo," I insisted, crossing my arms.

"You see, he's been having some trouble lately with these monsters." Piper looked at Leo, nodding for him to complete the story.

"Well, you see, my wife - Calypso - and I worked at this machine shop in Pennsylvania. We were taking a trip, about eight months ago, and came across a cavern. It was pulsing with Mist, so we checked it out. Inside, it was like a massive ants nest with its own massive ants. These monsters, 'Shadepods', Calypso told me, had large two part abdomens with a stinger at the end, six legs, four of which they used to stand upright and large yellow bulbous eyes. In their mouths, they had long pincers and fangs. They discovered us, and tried to kill us. We managed to escape, but not before one of them got me with its stinger. Then, on our many travels, we found out that Calypso was pregnant. We decided to try to make our way here, to safety, but these Shadepods kept tracking us down, making the journey extremely difficult. When we got here, Chiron said I had a slow poison in my system. He gave me about three days. That was a couple of hours ago."

Leo took a breath and continued his story.

"So, when we got here, Calypso went into labour, and has just had the twins. " Leo looked up, his face engraved with anxiety. "and, I got this vision from my dad."

Percy and I exchanged a look. We both knew that a vision from godly parents meant that something unusual was happening.

"In the vision, I was standing outside the entrance to a cave. I walked inside, and the path began slowly sloping downward. Then, was entirely underground. There were lots of these Shadepod things. I knew this was where I'd find a cure for my poisoning."

I was really worried. The Leo who had been talking was not the Leo I remember from ten years ago. This Leo had no life in him. There were no cheeky jokes, or sarcastic remarks.

"So, what's been going on while everyone was missing me to pieces," Leo asked, a faint glimmer of his old self coming through. He looked at Percy and winked at me. "Has Percy had the guts to pop the question?"

"Yes," I said, "but he was stumbling all over himself the whole time!"

We all looked a little embarrassed, so I took charge, planning our next move.

"Alright, Leo," I said, "we've got to call a meeting."

We found everyone huddling around the Big House. Jason said that was where Calypso and her twins were. Leo shoved his way through the crowd. They parted, making a path right up to the door, so Percy, Jason, Piper and I followed him.

"Calypso's had a pretty rough time," Piper said, looking worried. Both of the twins are healthy, but she's in a bad state - exhausted. She was in labour for over twenty hours."

I grimaced and stepped through the door into the low-lit front room of the Big House.

We made our way to the couch, where Calypso was lying. Even though I'd never met her, I'd seen the drawing that Hazel had done on the Argo 2. She had dark almond eyes, and caramel hair; her skin was pale. Leo went to her side.

"Cal. I'm here." He said, kissing her on the forehead. She smiled weakly.

"Leo, come see the girls." She moved a blanket to reveal two small baby girls. Even at only hours old, they both had streaks of Leo's black hair and Calypso's beautiful almond eyes. They were adorable. I smiled, and motioned for everyone to come outside and leave the new family together.

"Ok. Leo has three days to live. We need to find an antidote _now_ ," Piper said at the hurriedly put together council meeting. We'd filled everyone in on everything and were deciding what to do.

"But where?" Clarisse, head of Ares cabin growled. "We have no damn idea where this 'antidote' or this cave could be!" She banged on the ping pong table with her fist.

"Ah. But, I think, you are forgetting something that will help us with that," I said. Everyone turned towards me. Well, except Clovis. He was snoring, but no surprise there.

I continued. "We are at Camp Half Blood. What does Camp have that helps demigods find things?" I looked around, the answer obvious to me.

"The Oracle of Delphi," Jason realised. I nodded. He frowned, "but she's been silent for months!"

"Well, I have this feeling that she might talk now Leo's back, and some major things are happening."

Everyone murmured in agreement. There certainly were some major things happening. Calypso was off her island and married, Leo was back after ten years, and he was dying of a deadly poison and there were some new and scary monsters that no one had ever seen before.

I stood up. "I suggest we make a team of the seven who went on the last great quest. We were an unbeatable team. If Leo's our friend, we should give him the best." There was another murmur. "We should consult the Oracle. Is Rachel at Camp?" A few people nodded. "Great. Now, all we have to decide who's going to lead the quest. Any suggestions?"

"The only obvious person to choose is you, Annabeth. You basically lead the last great quest, so she leads again." Percy said looking around the table. There was a nodding of heads.

"Alright, Annabeth," Jason said, swiveling in his chair to face me, "you should consult the Oracle now. We don't have much time."

I nodded and stood up.

It was getting exciting. The seven of us, together on a quest again. It was just like old times.

I walked up the gravel path to Rachel's cave. She was sitting inside, her back to me.

"Hey, Rachel," I called softly. She turned around. Her eyes were bright green, and there was smoke curling from her mouth. She was no longer Rachel Elizabeth Dare... she was the Oracle of Delphi. I stepped back when she spoke.

 _Seven shall go north to the land of rain,_

 _None shall be lost, but two shall remain._

 _The city of beauty is where you shall travel,_

 _And that is where your stories unravel._

 _You'll find, near the city, in a cave,_

 _what will keep him from the grave._

Wow. That was some prophecy. I shook my head, and stared at Rachel. She was back to normal.

"Hey Annabeth," she groaned, "guess the Oracle hijacked my body for a while to give you demigods some vital info."

I nodded sympathetically.

"I gotta get back," I said reluctantly, "big meeting..." Rachel nodded. She knew what I was talking about.

So I sprinted out of the cave and back to the meeting.


	3. Chapter 3

"Say what now?" Percy said, looking really confused. Piper, Jason, Leo, Percy and I were sitting at the ping pong table. Frank and Hazel had contacted us to say they'd be here soon. I repeated the prophecy.

" _Seven shall go north to the land of rain, none shall be lost, but two shall remain. The city of beauty is where you shall travel, and that is where your stories unravel. Near the city, in a cave, you'll find what will keep him from the grave._ " I reached for a pad of paper and wrote the prophecy down.

"I knew prophecies could be confusing, but this….?" Percy said, shaking his head in amazement.

I smiled. At that moment Hazel and Frank burst in.

"So, what've we missed?" Hazel asked. I motioned for them to sit, and then I filled them in. After I'd finished, Hazel and Frank looked a little confused.

"Basically," Percy leaned back in his chair, "Leo's dying from a deadly poison, we seven find the antidote, Shadepods are attacking demigods, Calypso's just had twins and we have to make everything right in three days."

There ensued an extremely awkward silence. Then Frank spoke:

"Ohhhhhhh... now I get it. We're going on a quest... right?" He looked around, desperate to break the silence.

"Alright," I said, " _Seven shall go north to the land of rain._ Where, north of here, is a rainy place that is a beautiful city?" I grabbed a map from a shelf above my head.

"I guess if we went all the way north we would get into Canada. In B.C. it's rainy," Frank said, "I live in Vancouver, so ―"

"That's it!" I jumped up, "I read somewhere that Vancouver was supposed to be one of the rainiest, but most beautiful cities in the world. That fits, doesn't it." They all nodded.

"But how are we going to get there?" Piper wondered, "and how are we going to get there with enough time spare to find this cave thingy?"

"Well..." Jason leaned back in his chair like his dad was the king of the world. Well, actually, that was true. "My dad's the king of the sky. The fastest mode of transport: airplane."

"Yeah, but, Jason," Percy said, "Poseidon and Zeus don't really get along. When I was about twelve, Zeus said 'no air transport'. How do we get around that?"

"But if I'm on the airplane, and my dad wants to blast _you_ out of the sky, he won't want to blast his me, his son, out of the sky, will he?" Jason said. I groaned.

"Ok, Jason. Pray to your dad. Tell him this is important and Percy has to go by sky..." Piper said.

"Nah," Percy deided, "I'll go to my dad and get him to send me to Vancouver. He can do stuff like that." I must have looked worried, because he reached over and kissed me reassuringly on the cheek.

The six (minus Percy, of course) of us boarded the plane. Jason, Piper, Hazel, Frank, Leo - looking very sickly - and me. Percy had swum down to his dad's underwater palace two hours earlier.

The whole plane journey was very boring. It took six hours, and it was the most boring six hours of my entire life. When we got off the plane, Percy was waiting for us.

We found our way out of the airport and into the busy city of Vancouver. Frank, being very excited, pointed out skyscrapers and restaurants. I got down to business and soon enough we were all in a small cafe, planning our next moves. I had brought several maps with all the caves in the area. We looked at each one.

"I think that there are only two that are accessible by land. I say we go to both. One today, and the other tomorrow. Then we'll have a full day to get the anti-poison into Leo." I looked up. Everyone looked very tired.

"We're all a little jet-lagged. That was a three hour time difference. Not much, but for a demigod..." Piper reasoned. I nodded. Demigods suffered really badly from jet lag.

"Yeah. I guess you're right. It's about dinner time now. Let's find somewhere to eat, and get an early night." I replied, seeing her logic.

We found a small place to eat dinner and talked over some plans. After dinner we found a hotel and got four rooms. Piper and Jason in one, Hazel and Frank in another, Leo in a separate room, and Percy and me in the last.

The next morning, we got up before sunrise, had breakfast and rented a car to get to the nearer cave. Frank said he'd been there before, and navigated us to it rather well. When we got there, Leo had a look around. Today he was looking even worse. He'd fashioned himself a metal stick to lean on, and his breathing was getting dangerously loud. Frank turned into a bat and explored the cave. When he came back, Leo had sat down for a rest.

"It goes on for miles," he jumped around, excitedly, "I think it could be the one in the dream. I didn't see any monsters, though."

I thanked him, and went over to sit by Leo. I guess my face must have been pale or something, because Piper came over, looking worried.

"You ok, Annabeth?" she asked. I lied yes. My stomach was feeling really queasy. Uh oh. I jumped up, and ran to a nearby rock, and threw up. Yikes.

"You sure don't look it," Piper insisted, putting a hand on my shoulder. "Why don't you go and sit by Leo for a while."

"Yeah," I croaked. I went back to where I was sitting next to Leo.

"Do you need anything, Annabeth?" Percy asked, coming over, looking really worried.

"I'm fine. Really," I lied. He didn't look convinced, but he left me, anyway.

Leo was looking around, frowning. His face was very pale, and he was unsteady, even when sitting down.

"This place doesn't feel right," he said, "I think I would know if the monsters were here. I would get a feeling. Can we go to the other cave, please?"

I nodded, "sounds good to me!" All the while feeling like crap from Tartarus - and believe me, I know what that's like. We went back to the car. Piper caught me up as we were trekking back to it.

"You sure you ok? You haven't looked good all these last few days."

I nodded and kept walking, not turning to face her.

"I think you know what's going on, Annabeth," she replied, grabbing my shoulder, forcing me to stop. She continued: "but when?"

I shrugged her off. This wasn't the time. Not now. We got back to the car, and all piled in. I stayed quiet for the whole hour to the second cave, feeling like I'd just been in a boxing match with Ares.


	4. Chapter 4

When we got to the second cave, all seven of us mentioned, at one point or another, how creepy it was. We all went inside, after Frank had given it a look through. I thought ruefully of how when we were in our teens, we would have raced in there, excited for the adventure. Now, we were as cautious as a blind man.

It was dark and damp in the cave. Leo lead the way, leaning on his stick. Piper stayed close to me. I could tell she wanted to say something to me about our short conversation earlier, but didn't know how to say it.

Leo stopped, motioning for us all to stop walking. He held out his hands, and produced a ball of fire. This he used to light the passageway. The path forked in two. Leo pointed to the left one, and proceeded forward. As we walked, my stomach churned. Piper was right. I did have an idea of what was going on here. I was just too afraid to stand up to it.

We came to a cavern.

"Weapons out, guys," Leo called from the front. I grabbed the knife I'd had at my side. I heard the familiar _shink!_ of Percy's sword. Then I saw them. About ten creatures, each with a two part abdomen, and large yellow eyes. Shadepods. We crept behind a rock, and thankfully, the creatures didn't see us.

"So, where's this magic anti-poison?" Hazel asked, scrutinizing the cave carefully. I did the same, but couldn't see anything.

"I think it may be with the Shadepod king. He's in a subchamber somewhere around here," Leo answered, pointing to a small corridor. Through it, I could see a glint of gold.

"Should we kill this lot and then go through to the king? Or creep through and avoid them?" Piper asked, looking at me. I thought through it.

"I think we should try to get through first. If they see us, we kill them," I decided. Everyone nodded. We crept around the edge of the cavern, keeping an eye on the Shadepods. We got to the corridor, and slipped through, Leo first. We followed the corridor to the end, and found ourselves looking straight into a throne room. With at least a dozen guards on either side. With the king on the throne. Looking right at us.

" _You! Seven people!"_ he hissed, pointing at the guards to grab us. Hazel and Piper tried running back up the passage, but the guards grabbed them.

" _I very interested in why you here."_ The king hissed. He had an accent, and spoke English as if he only recently started learning it.

"Please, your highness," I said, falling to my knees, "we only came to gaze upon your wondrousness. Upon your utter perfectness." Yeah. I know. It sounds really shallow. But that was what would work. Hey, I'm one Athena's kids, I know about strategy.

The king sat back in his throne, looking a little shocked.

" _You come to just see me?"_ he asked. I nodded. He smiled, and told the guards to clear the room, and bring us some food. I thanked him profusely. The other six joined in, clearly thinking this was great fun. The guards brought some food in, and gave us each a plate. The king motioned for us to eat, and we did. I was a little suspicious, but the king seemed to have taken our story. Once we'd eaten the food, we were in invited to sit in front of the king. Then he smiled.

" _Ahh... I see now. I see though you funny little stories. You" -_ he pointed to Leo - " _you here for my prized possession - my anti-poison. And you two!"_ \- he pointed to Hazel and Frank - " _you are destined for a big decision here. Piper! You and your husband have been keeping secrets from your friends. Naughty...naughty...naughty...But you...Annabeth... have the biggest secret of all. Yes... you know what I'm talking about. Keeping secrets like_ that _from your husband? Tsk tsk."_

"What? What's he talking about? Annabeth?" Percy looked at me, nervous.

"No! It's nothing. Nothing." I replied, looking at the ground. Piper spoke.

"Annabeth! You've got to tell Percy. It involves him," she said, taking my hand. I looked up.

"Percy, well. I-I'm pregnant." I said


	5. Chapter 5

"What!?" Percy shouted, looking at me.

"This is no time. Let's talk about it later." I said, hating myself for saying anything. Percy looked at me, unbelieving.

"How were you able to do that?" I asked the king. He chuckled.

" _The food you ate let I see you're deepest darkest fear."_

I'd had enough. I stood up, and drew my sword. I swiped at the king, but he deflected my sword with his claw. Percy got up and stabbed at the king. He dogged, and I stabbed at him from the other side. Several dozen guards rushed in, and started attacking us. Then all our friends were up.

Jason was bringing down bolts of lightning, Hazel was using the mist to create an army to back us up, Piper was swinging her sword faster than the guards knew what was happening, Frank had turned into a dragon, and was carrying Leo out of harm's way, while biting off the guards heads.

Finally, finally, I gave the killing strike. I sliced the king through the stomach, cutting him in two. The two halves wriggled, and black blood oozed out.

" _You- will never...find - the antidote!"_ the king screamed, and stopped moving. He was dead. Everyone turned around, the battle over. All the guards were lying dead on the floor, but we knew more were coming.

"I have an idea!" I said, " help me move the throne!" Percy, Frank and Piper moved the throne, and...BINGO! Behind the throne was a small door, padlocked.

"I can get rid of that!" Hazel said. She used the Mist to make the lock disappear.

"I love it when you do that!" Frank said, looking into her eyes. She smiled.

"That's why my birthday presents from you are never a surprise!" she replied, kissing him on the cheek.

We raced through the door, leaving it open behind us. We came to a room that was covered in water. We tried swimming, but the other side seemed to get further away. Hazel said it was some kind of distortion using the mist that she couldn't lift, so Percy brought up a wave, and transported us to the other side.

Then we came to the room. The door didn't have a lock, but wouldn't open.

"I think..." Leo shuddered, coughing, "I need to open the door, because I'm the sick one." I nodded. That made sense. Piper took his hand, "are you sure, Leo?" she asked, looking worried. He nodded, looking determined. Leo put his hands to the doorknob, and opened it easily.

Inside the room was just one item; a vial of blue liquid.

Leo picked it up and cradled it in his hand. Then, Piper heard something.

"What was that?" she asked. We looked at her, "I think I heard something." She insisted. I glanced at the doorway, worried. If there were Shadepods coming this way, we wanted to be out of the cave by the time they got here.

"We'd better get outta here, then," I said. Leo tried opening the vial to chug it, but it wouldn't open.

"Do it later, Leo, we've got to get going." Percy said. We ran out of the room, and down the corridor. Into the throne room and into the first cavern. When we got outside, I checked my watch.

"Um, we have a problem." I must have looked worried, because everyone stared at me. "Time must have passed a lot faster in the cavern, because we were in the cavern for at least twenty hours. We have eleven hours to get Leo to drink the anti-poison. Open it Leo!" He tried, but it wouldn't open. We all tried, and it wouldn't open.

"There's just enough time to get to the hotel, pack our things and get on a plane," Piper said, looking at her watch. I nodded.

We hurried back to the car and raced away. The speedometer didn't dip below 150 mph the whole way. Frank and Hazel were whispering in the back all the way back to the hotel, but wouldn't tell us what they were talking about. We got our stuff packed up and headed for the airport. When we got there, there were only five seats left on the plane to New York City. And the next plane wouldn't leave until the next day. By then, it would be too late for Leo.

"What do we do?" I asked, looking worried, "Leo's gotta get back soon."

We argued for about ten minutes, Piper, Jason, me and Percy all volunteering to stay in Vancouver. Then Hazel spoke up.

"Guys? Frank and I will wait for the next flight. We're hoping to stay in Vancouver permanently."

"What? Why?" Piper asked.

"Well, this was Frank's hometown, and we both wanted a change from Camp Jupiter. We're pretty much done school, and the university could send us the final exams. We both love it here, and were thinking of coming here anyway." Hazel took Frank's hand, and squeezed it. I smiled.

"I think that's wonderful," I said, taking Percy's hand, "and you know, the prophecy has been completed - _Seven shall go north to the land of rain,_ (we came to Vancouver, a place with lots of rain) _. None shall be lost, but two shall remain_ (none of us died and Frank and Hazel are staying.) _The city of beauty is where you shall travel._ (Vancouver is one of the most beautiful cities in the world.) _And that is where your stories unravel. You'll find, near the city, in a cave what will keep him from the grave. (_ One of the caves near here was where we found the antidote to keep Leo from dying)." I smiled, trying not to cry. If Frank and Hazel moved here, we'd hardly ever see them. Piper was already crying, and hugging Hazel.

 _"Five minutes to boarding for New York City. Five minutes,"_ a voice called. Jason, Piper, Leo (looking really ill), Percy and I said our final goodbyes to Frank and Hazel. They were both looking really happy.

The rest of us boarded the plane.


	6. Chapter 6

On the way home I told Percy about my pregnancy.

"You see, I began to get the pains a little while ago, and then I threw up a couple of times, and then... Piper guessed it, and told me."

Percy took my hand, and kissed me. I kissed him back.

When we got to the airport, Percy rushed off the plane.

"That. Was. A. Bad. Idea." He grumbled, "I. Hate. Planes."

I laughed, and we walked to the exit.

When we got back to Camp Half-Blood, Chiron was ready to try to open the vial. We'd phoned him in the taxi on the way home.

Leo was in bad shape. He was having trouble breathing. There was blood in his mouth instead of saliva. His face was purple, and he couldn't walk. We carried him into the first-aid tent, and Chiron opened the vial. We were all confused on how it now opened.

We figured out afterwards that the vial could only be opened at Leo's true home. Camp was his true home.

Leo choked the liquid down. Within minutes, his face began to turn a normal colour, there was no blood, he could breathe properly. Then he stood up and walked out the door. I looked at Piper, Percy and Jason. This was good news. Leo was healing.

We followed him out to the Big House, where Calypso was walking around the kitchen, singing, making dinner and playing with the twins all at the same time.

"Leo! You're home. Oh gods, you're back!" Calypso started crying, so Leo went to her, and they started kissing.

We left them, and went outside. Something was bugging me, so I decided to put it to rest.

"Piper? Jason? In the Shadepod throne room, the king said you were keeping a secret from us. What is it?" I stopped, and sat down on the bench.

"Well..." Piper began, "you see, we told you we've been living at Camp, but actually we've been living in an apartment about half an hour away. The problem is...my dad - my dad's in a bad state. He's been drinking a lot. Something in his mind just snapped, and so he's been wasting all his millions of dollars on gambling and drinking. We took him to a hospital to see if we could do something about it, and they said he had to go into constant care. After wasting all that money, he hasn't been able to pay his hospital fees. So we decided to help him out. Between that and paying our apartment fees, and not getting paid a whole lot from our jobs, we quickly went into debt. Now, the owner of the apartment won't let us leave, because we have a twenty thousand dollar debt to him."

She started crying, and Jason took her in his arms.

"Piper, you should have told us. We're happy to help. Percy and I have steady jobs, we've paid off the loan and have a nice apartment of our own. We also have over three hundred thousand in savings. How about, if..." I looked at Percy for support, "if we got you out of the apartment, and got you a new apartment of your own. Then, you could pay us half back for the apartment."

Piper burst into even more tears, but they were tears of happiness. "Wow, that sounds amazing! Would you really do that?" Jason asked. Percy nodded and smiled. Piper ran over to me and gave me a hug, thanking us all the while. I hugged her back and smiled. Jason went over to Percy and clapped him on the back. After squeezing me super hard, Piper finally let go, her tears slowing down a bit. I took Percy's hand, and he gave me a kiss.


	7. Chapter 7

_**SIX MONTHS LATER**_

I opened my eyes and rolled over. A shock of jet black hair was on the bed next to me. I smiled and fell onto my back. Percy's alarm buzzed. 7:30. He had to get to work. The mop of black hair groaned and rolled over, putting his hand on my large belly. I smiled and looked into his deep green eyes.

I was on maternity leave, and our baby was supposed to be here in a week. We were both very excited.

I struggled to get out of bed, my belly restricting my normal movement. I put my legs over the side of the bed and rested my hands on my stomach.

"Ugh, work. I just want to stay with you," Percy smiled. He helped me to my feet, and then jumped into the shower.

I kissed him goodbye, and then went about my daily chores. Then the phone rang.

"Annabeth? It's me! Hazel! I was just phoning because I knew your baby would be arriving soon. Anything happened?" I told her no, but it should be here in one week. She was very excited. We chatted for awhile, and then she had to go to work, so she hung up.

It was about lunchtime when it started. I was putting away the lunch dishes, and felt a sudden pain in my stomach. I clutched my sides, knowing what was happening. I tried calling Percy, but didn't get through. When I called Piper. She answered.

"Piper! Get down here. The baby's coming. I can't get a hold of Percy. Please get him!" I was dizzy with the pain, and Piper calmed me down with her charm speak.

I felt my way to the couch, and fell down on it, the pain unbearable.

Thirty minutes later, Percy, Piper and an ambulance showed up. The last thing I remembered was Percy looking into my eyes and saying: "It's alright, Annabeth. I'm here now."

The next forty hours were some of the most exhausting, painful and terrifying of my life. When it was finally over, I looked over at Percy. He was right next to my bed, smiling from ear to ear. Piper and Jason were standing a little ways off, both grinning.

"Annabeth?" a doctor turned to me, "congratulations, ma'am, congratulations."

I looked around. Percy said: "You're now the mother to a healthy baby girl." I struggled to sit up, and kissed Percy. He went over to the nurse and gently took the small baby from her. He put her in my arms.

"Riley," I said, looking up at Percy. We'd decided early on that we'd call the baby Riley, boy or girl.

"Riley," he said.


	8. Chapter 8

_**FIVE YEARS LATER**_

"Mom! Can I take Roger for a walk with Daddy?" Riley pulled at my jeans. I nodded. Riley was five. She had my grey eyes, and Percy's dark hair.

"I wanna go too! Mommy, please!" Alex wailed. He was two, and always wanted to do everything Riley did. His green eyes grew big, the way, he knew, that softened me enough to relent.

Five years, and so much had happened. Piper and Jason were able to pay us back, and were now living in a lovely apartment with their son Benjamin. Ben was going to be a big a brother in around two months, as Piper was pregnant. Frank and Hazel still lived in Canada, where they had had a daughter, Amelia (Ami), and a son named Noah. Leo and Calypso had the twins, Jasmine and Olivia, then had three more children, Liam, Mia and Ava.

Percy and I were no exception. After having Riley and Alex, we wanted more children, so we had Layla, who was now 18 months.

The Shadepods had stayed away, and we hadn't had to go on any more adventures since. Monsters had left us alone, all seven of us had great jobs, families, steady incomes and a great life.

Although I was now thirty three (in my kids eyes, " _really old")_ , I still had that thirst for adventure.

So, when Chiron called us to say that there was a monster problem in New Orleans, I looked at my kids, who were staring up at me.

"Riley and Jackson, you're going to be staying at Camp Half Blood for a while, because mommy and daddy are going on a little... adventure!"


End file.
